Reason, Liberty, & Culture

Defining Fake News What to Watch For

by Lewis Loflin

I define "fake news" as articles designed to create false, biased, narratives with partial facts filtered through a Progressive filter, censor pertinent facts by omission, block discussion through editorial censorship, that is ideologically slanted, and designed not to give facts, but stoke emotion and sway public opinion.

This skirts the fringes of propaganda and yellow journalism.

I don't believe they mean to do this or it is some conspiracy - they report from their cultural perspective.

Journalist Bart Hinkle noted in his article "How to weed out 'fake news'" presents good examples. After the Trump inauguration, The New York Times ran a series of articles on Jewish cemeteries being desecrated trying to tie President Trump to white supremacy and anti-Semitism.

Two high profile cases turned out to be a disgruntled black ex-journalist and another a disgruntled Israeli Jew. Other Jewish writers had been pointing out this problem existed long before Trump ever came along. To quote Bart,

"Yet The Times largely ignored or downplayed it until January 2017 - leaving the dangerous impression that anti-Semitism is contingent on U.S. presidential politics, rather than a persistent virulence unto its vile self."

As for press bias, Mr. Hinkle writes,

"It is not true that the media are 'out to get' one side or the other. The reality is actually worse: Many in the media have no clue to how biased they really are. Newsroom stylebooks don't dictate that reporters refer to 'the gun lobby' but never to 'the abortion lobby', for example. Newsrooms just tend to have far more sympathy for the latter than the former."

Likewise, they tend to be far more interested in fear-mongering stories about the harm from too little regulation than from too much of it."

The problem originates from indoctrination in our elite colleges. Intentional or not there is a rigid almost fascist control of language and culture on campus censoring alternate viewpoints. This is enforced sometimes with outright violence from radical students prodded along by radical administrators.

The Washington Post (May 6, 2014) reports 7% of journalists vote Republican. Politico (4-25-2017) noted most journalists are concentrated in massive Blue enclaves that voted 30% or more for Clinton over Trump.

That includes both newspaper and internet publishing. With the increasing censorship by Google, Facebook and Twitter going hard Left, diversity of any opinion is becoming impossible.

This includes, for example, Boston where the racial income disparity is shocking. A Fed study showed the net worth of Blacks at $8 while whites had a net worth of almost $250,000 - they voted 6 to 1 for Hillary over Trump.

They have nothing to do on any real level with those outside their income brackets, class, and yes race. This is totally political and social isolation from most of the country - regions whose lifestyle and values they despise and look down on.

There is particular disdain for lower income and blue collar whites.

This precludes any rational or realistic discussion Islam and Muslims. I'll address that problem in three separate essays.